They would ask me what actors I saw in the roles. I would tell them, and they’d say “Oh that’s interesting.” And that would be the end of it.
--Elmore Leonard, in 2000, on the extent of his input for Hollywood's adaptation of his novels

Wednesday, June 11, 2014

Daniel H. Wilson's "Robogenesis"

Daniel H. Wilson is the author of the New York Times bestselling Robopocalypse and seven other books, including How to Survive a Robot Uprising, A Boy and His Bot, and Amped. In 2008, he hosted The Works on the History Channel. He earned a PhD in Robotics from Carnegie Mellon University, as well as Masters degrees in Artificial Intelligence and Robotics.

Robogenesis is a sequel to the bestselling Robopocalypse, which was purchased by DreamWorks and put into movie development hell with Steven Spielberg attached to direct. That was years ago, but I’m still hoping very hard that the movie moves forward. Chris Hemsworth was attached as Cormac Wallace, which sounds good to me (although in my mind, Cormac is not quite as Thor-like in his buffness). My most ardent hope, however, is that the dozens of Native American characters in Robogenesis (including Lark Iron Cloud, Hank Cotton, and Cherrah Ridge) will someday be played by native actors.

“Compared to a novel, a film is like an economy pizza where there are no olives, no ham, no anchovies, no mushrooms, and all you’ve got is the dough.”
--Louis de Bernières, author of Captain Corelli’s Mandolin